She Just Got Lucky

Old Friends

        City Z wasn't a pretty place. It never had been, but now that most of the buildings were abandoned, it was much worse. While the slowly decaying buildings were eyesores, the worst was definitely the rubble that blocked streets. It was quite annoying. Especially since clean up crews so rarely came to this part of City Z. She sure wished that Saitama had lived in a better place than this hoveled town.

Ryo clung to a heavy grocery bag that pinched her skin no matter how she held it. She wore a red slip dress that fluttered around her knees over a white shirt. Her hair gently bobbed from side to side as she walked. Outside of Saitama's complex, another pile of rubble sat in the middle of the road. This one looked as if someone had dug up from beneath the ground. But atop the pile was a white flag with the word 'sorry' frantically written on it.

"Saitama must have taken care of it." Ryo sighed as she entered the building and ascended the stairs since the elevator stopped working a while ago. She knocked on the door as a formality but opened it before anyone answered. The door was never locked any way. "Saitama? You home?"

The only response she got was a curt 'hmph' Ryo entered, took off her shoes, and went straight to the kitchen, unloading the limited groceries she had picked up from the store. "There wasn't a sale, so I couldn't grab much for you, but you should last a week or so." Saitama didn't respond, not even moving from his position in front of the T.V. to help her with the groceries. He usually didn't thank her for buying him groceries, after all, he never asked her to do so. Nonetheless, his lack of response annoyed her. "Have you been sitting in front of the T.V. all day?"

"What's your definition of all day?" He asked, lazily picking his nose.

Ryo placed a hand on her hip and looked down on him scornfully. "You didn't even put your futon away. You clearly woke up there and haven't moved."

"Sheesh!" He shouted as he slowly rose to his feet. "Alright, I'm up, I'm up. Jeez, with how much you lecture me, you'd think you were my mother."

She might as well be. One look in his fridge revealed how little food he had. A packet of honey, a half-full container of soy sauce, and an untouched cucumber. "You couldn't function without me, look at this fridge!"

Saitama shrugged and stretched his back, relieving the tension in his back from laying on the ground. "I eat out most of the time," he said as he retrieved a water pitcher. He silently filled it up in the sink behind her. Ryo looked over her shoulder, observing Saitama with great concern. She had known him back when he still had hair. Her father was the man who made his hero costume. Back then he had so much passion, he was always smiling and excited to fight monsters. Now, however, he seemed far off. He seemed so numb to it all.

Saitama left the kitchen to go drown the cactus on his balcony, and Ryo went back to work on putting away the groceries, listening to the news.

The broadcast was focused on a killer swarm of mosquitoes, sucking all the blood out from the living beings it came across. According to the newscaster, city Z was right in its path. "Do you think I should leave now with that swarm coming?" Ryo shouted to Saitama who was still drowning his cactus.

"If you get caught out there trying to leave, you'll be killed," his blunt nature annoyed her, but he was right. "The safest place is here with me."

She knew that was right. No matter the situation, being beside Saitama would guarantee your safety, unless of course, he was being careless, which he almost always was. Ryo sighed, putting the plastic bags with the other bags that Saitama collected under his sink. "Then I'll just stay here until its taken care of."